100 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1335 



in the flora which have taken place since the 

 occupation by white men, we know little of 

 the influence of the natives previous to that 

 time. The early explorers made little attempt 

 to learn what the Indians knew about plants 

 and since that time such knowledge has be- 

 come increasingly difiicult to obtain. 



Their cultivated crops were com, beans, 

 squashes and pumpkins with several varieties 

 of each; also tobacco (Nicotiana quadri- 

 valvis), all probably of Mexican origin. Ap- 

 parently they did not cultivate the wild plants 

 which grew about them but must have 

 scattered many of them by accident during 

 their travels. Sunflowers were cultivated by 

 the Worth Dakota tribes and some others, but 

 not by those of Nebraska so far as known. 

 Dr. Gilmore suggests that a sort of water- 

 melon described by the different tribes as 

 formerly cultivated among them may have 

 been native to America. The chief evidence 

 of this is the abundance of the fruits among 

 various tribes as reported by early explorers. 



About 200 species of plants are enumerated 

 with notes upon their uses as well as the 

 Indian names and- their derivation in the 

 Dakota, Omaha, Winnebago and Pawnee lan- 

 guages. In the following summary the plants 

 have been grouped according to their uses. 



Food. — In addition to cultivated crops, 

 common wild fruits and nuts, the grains of 

 wild rice, tubers of yellow lotus and roots of 

 tipsin (Dakota name of Psoralea esculenia) 

 were of special importance. The remainder 

 include mushrooms (elm caps, morels, three 

 species of puffballs, a bracket fungus, also 

 corn smut), tubers of arrow-leaf, Indian 

 potato (Apios) and Jerusalem artichoke; sub- 

 terranean fruits of ground bean (Falcata), 

 seeds of wild flax {Linum lewisii), berries of 

 ground cherry {Physalis heterophylla) , fruits 

 of prickly pear, bulbs of wild onion and wood 

 sorrel. Tender tops of lambsquarters and 

 stem bases of bulrush (Scirpus validus) ; 

 young sprouts, flower buds and green pods of 

 milkweed; sugar from hard and soft maple, 

 also box-elder. In time of shortage stems of 

 prickly pear, fruits of wild rose and red haw 

 were used. 



The nutritious roots of tipsin were dug in. 

 quantities in spite of the difficulty of securing 

 them. They were used fresh or peeled and 

 braided in strings to dry for winter use. The 

 tubers of yellow lotus, also the fruits of 

 plums, sand cherries and chokecherries were 

 dried for winter, the entire fruits of the 

 latter being first pounded into a pulp. 



Beverages, Etc.- — Dried leaves of red root, 

 fragrant giant hyssop and coneflower (Bati- 

 hida), also young leaves of wild strawberry 

 and raspberry for tea; leaves of sumac, bear- 

 berry and bark of red dogwood for smoking; 

 resin of compass plant and skeleton weed 

 (Lygodesmia) for chewing gum. 



Arts and Crafts. — Elm for lodge posts, 

 mortars and pestles; osage orange for bows; 

 ash for bows and pipe-stems; rough dogwood 

 for arrow shafts; willow for baskets. Yucca 

 leaves, nettle stems and inner bark of bass- 

 wood for fiber, sloughgrass {Spartina) for 

 thatching, big blue-stem {Andropogon furca- 

 tus) to support the earth covering of the 

 lodges; bulrush stems for matting, birch bark 

 for household utensils and torches. Lichens 

 (Parmelia lorreri and Usnea barlata), buds 

 of Cottonwood, roots of black walnut, blood 

 root and sumac for dye. Roots of Yucca for 

 soap; juice of prickly pear for mucilage; down 

 of cat-tails for pillows and bandages; stems 

 of scouring rushes for polishing. On the 

 treeless plains Yucca leaves bound together 

 served as a fire drill, the dried stem as punk. 



Ornament. — Seeds of Erythrina, China 

 berry and wild cucumber (Micrampelis) for 

 beads, sweet grass, sweet clover, wild ber- 

 gamot, fragrant bedstraw (Galium triflorum), 

 fruits of meadow rue and prickly ash, seeda 

 of colimibine for fragrance; berries of poke- 

 berry for stain. Of the wild bergamont the 

 Pawnee recognized four forms which differed 

 in fragrance. 



Toys. — Pembina^ stems for popguns, the 

 wadding being nettle fiber, inner bark of elni, 



2 A corruption of the Chippewa name for Vibur- 

 num opulus. Dr. Gilmore states that it is already 

 in use by the people of northern North Dakota and 

 Manitoba, and suggest that it be adopted in place 

 of the inappropriate "high-bush cranberry." 



